Monday, August 31, 2015

I have come across the following Canadian genealogy, history and heritage websites, social media, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.

This Week in Canadian History

In August, Fleury Mesplet, first published the bilingual Montreal Gazette, in Montreal, Quebec. It is the oldest operating newspaper in Canada today.

Three of Lost Art Cartography's maps have been chosen by the Environmental Systems Research Institute (ESRI) to be featured in its annual map book. The map book recognizes important and innovative accomplishments of geographic information system (GIS) users around the world.

Morrow County Chamber of Commerce members at the August meeting were the first to hear the name chosen for the History Museum on the Mount Gilead public square.

The Stories This Week

Now that summer vacation is over, one can tell by the weather today, that Fall is on it's way in the Norther Hemisphere. That can only mean one thing – genealogy!

I had the occasion to write an article this week for the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors(ISFHWE), and I wrote that “The schedules for the fall genealogy meetings have started to appear in Canada. Libraries have released their course schedules for the fall, and the archives have put their exhibit schedules on their websites - so all is set. Canada will be an exciting place to explore your Canadian ancestors this fall”.

Isn't that true!

So here are some activities that you may like to attend -

Be sure to attend the British Columbia Genealogical Society’s second annual Harvest Supper, Wednesday, 9 September, 2015 from 6-7 pm, before the General Meeting, at the Danish Lutheran Church, 6010 Kincaid Street in Burnaby.

The dinner was well attended last year and a great time was had by all, so reserve your places early. [ If you need to e-mail about the supper, send a note to bcgs@bcgs.ca]

The general meeting will begin at 7:30 pm.

Group sessions after the meeting will include the English Interest Group and the USA Interest Group.

The dinner cost is $10. RSVP to Darlene at 604-591-2841, or to Lynne at 604-942-3663 before September the 4th.

The Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society is happy to host an array of genealogical topics under their fall session Tracing Your Family Tree over three Saturdays.

The date of the course will be

Saturday, 24 October 2015, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Saturday, 31 October 2015, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Saturday, 7 November 2015, from 10:00 am – 3:00 pm

Cost for the entire course, including handouts: $80 for AGS members; $100 for non-members.

There is going to be an Open House at the Manitoba Genealogical Society (MGS) Open House held in conjunction with MB Culture Days on Saturday, September 26 from 10:00 am – 4:00 pm.

Join MGS in exploring “genealogy” and family history. For beginners, our interactive Open House will introduce you to genealogy and will provide: assistance to begin your family search, a tour of our Library/Resource Center, and activities for children. For current genealogists we will have an introduction to our new online database MANI with 1.5 million records of Manitoba names. We will also have a “problem corner” to help solve roadblocks in your family search. Join us for a look back into your own family history.

This weekend will be the last chance to see the Greek Canadian Heritage Project (GCHP) in Toronto.

The GCHP was invited by Mike Cullen, owner of the community café, and Laura Heaney, curator, participated in the month long collaboration. The café’s walls are consistently decorated by the work of local artists and engage patrons while they enjoy Broadview Espresso’s coffee and snacks.

The segment of its Toronto Telegram exhibit from August 1 – 31 at Broadview Espresso – 817 Broadview Ave, Toronto, ON (Broadview Avenue just north of Danforth).

Thursday, August 27, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

August is Archaeology Month at the Canadian Museum of History

The museum is going to have a special event on Saturday, August 29 at 2 p.m. on the Riverview Salon and Museum grounds.

The event is called Cultural Landscape: The Stories Beneath Our Feet in which archaeologist Jean-Luc Pilon will help you explore the cultural landscape of the north bank of the Ottawa River, from the Chaudière Falls to the mouth of the Gatineau River.

For thousands of years, this was an important place for First Peoples, and their stories continue to reverberate beneath our feet.

The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) Conference newsletter was in my mailbox this morning, and it's a “must have” if you are planning to attend the conference.

The Conference 2016 Genealogy on the Cutting Edge will take place in Toronto from June 3-5, 2016.

There will be internationally acclaimed experts , such as "The Legal Genealogist" Judy G. Russell and CeCe Moore, "Your Genetic Genealogist".

Also presenting sessions are Dr. Maurice Gleeson, a UK-based genetic genealogist and popular presenter at the 2015 Conference, and Lisa Louise Cooke, the tech-savvy dynamo behind "Genealogy Gems". More wonderful speakers will be announced soon.

The Relief Education Medical Assistance Organization will host the Caribbean Genealogy Symposiumand Reception at Ellesmere Community Centre in Scarborough on 29 August 2015.

Pooran Bridgelal, genealogist and lecturer, and the Ontario Genealogical Society (Toronto Branch) will be there to help to guide the people interested in researching their family histories from Jamaica, Dominica, Barbados and more.

The Caribbean Genealogy Symposium and Reception will take place at 3:30 p.m. until 7:30 p.m. at 20 Canadian Road, Scarborough, Ontario.

For more information on purchasing tickets, please contact Elma Gabriel at 416-282-4557.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

Genealogical and Family Institute of Scottish Studies

Announcement has come from James Fraser, Scottish Studies Chair, at the University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario through his Twitter feed and on the Facebook page that there will be a new Genealogical and Family Institute of Scottish Studies.

To assist with the development of the new Institute, the University will begin a crowdfunding campaign in December of this year (2015).

The Board for Certification of Genealogists, an American based organization, has announced that Canadian genealogist, Alison Hare, CG, from Ottawa, Ontario has been re-elected for another three-year term as trustee.

She has been certified since 1999, and is a fellow member of the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists at http://ocapg.org/.

Monday, August 24, 2015

I have come across the following Canadian genealogy, history and heritage websites, social media, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.

This Week in Canadian History

In 1860, Edward, Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII) arrived in Montreal during a tour of British North American colonies.

It took him 2 months to tour the provinces of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, Upper Canada (Ontario), and Lower Canada (Quebec).

The occasion was the official opening of the new community hall in Black River, a hall that sprang from the ashes when the former school that had been standing for well over a century burned to the ground.

To my surprise, Black River isn’t profiled in the book, at least not under that name. Yet a couple of Kings County communities are profiled that either don’t exist or were never officially recognized as communities. Etna and Vesuvius are two such communities that come to mind.

New Brunswick

Fort Beauséjour - Fort Cumberland to host presentation on First World War NB pilots

Fort Beauséjour - Fort Cumberland National Historic Site will host a special presentation on First World War New Brunswick pilots, including Albert Desbrisay Carter, one of Canada's top ace pilots of the time who was from Point de Bute.

Four centuries ago, the first Mass west of Quebec was celebrated in the Huron-Wendat village of Carhagouha. On Aug. 15, Toronto's Cardinal Thomas Collins returned to that spot to mark the 400th anniversary of the event.

It's nearly incomprehensible that 25 months after the opening of the bridge on Circle Drive South, with another two bridges expected to be built within three years, city council is still struggling to come up with an easy way to name Saskatoon's iconic structures that goes beyond a prosaic geographical description.

Isn't this great news! One mystery auction and more than 15,000 km later, this 140-year-old family Bible goes home.

The Stories This Week

New direction of the Ontario Genealogical Society blog

There has been quite a few changes at the Ontario Genealogical Society over the past couple years, and now there is a change of what you see at their blog.

In years past, it use to be the place where the news was posted, now, since March of this year, it is the place where you go to learn how to do Ontario genealogy. The news have been moved to the Facebook page.

Saturday, August 22, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

The Ontario East British Home Child Family

The Ontario East British Home Child Family (OEBHCF) have set-up and are ready to open their museum at the Aultsville Train Station near Upper Canada Village in Ontario.

The station will be open and manned by members of the OEBHCF group for the next four weekends.
The hours of operation will be 11:00 am - 4:00 pm each Saturday and Sunday. They will also be open for these hours on Labour Day Monday.

There will be a talk about the Home Children on Saturday at 3:15 on the 19th
of September at the annual conference of the British British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO). Gloria Tubman will give the talk.

The title will be William Quarrier Children: Orphan Homes of Scotland to Fairknowe, Brockville, Ontario and she will talk about William Quarrier and his Orphan Homes of Scotland at Bridge of Weir, provided a home and refuge for thousands of orphans and/or underprivileged children from all parts of the country.

The Orphan Homes of Scotland was a complete community for these children, with cottages, a school, a hospital and training facilities. More than 5,000 thousand of these children came to Canada under the British Home Child immigration initiative.

The majority were placed through Fairknowe, the Quarrier-owned facility in Brockville, Ontario. The discussion will include: the life of a child at the Orphan Homes of Scotland; the Canadian receiving homes used by Quarrier — Marchmont in Belleville and Fairknowe in Brockville; and the available records for the British Home Children who came to Canada through the Quarrier organization.

Further to this, the volunteers of the BIFHSGO has a new resource - the British Home Children Deaths Database.

Each of the more than 2,000 records in this database provides the name of the deceased Home Child. The records may also contain age at death, cause of death, location of death, burial location, and the year the child arrived in Canada.

Friday, August 21, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

Remembering the Acadian expulsion from Remsheg, Nova Scotia

The removal of Acadians from the present-day village of Wallace, Nova Scotia (formerly called Remsheg) took place 260 years ago last week.

On July 28, 1755, close to a hundred Acadian delegates appeared before the British council, and when asked again to swear an unconditional oath of allegiance to the British Crown, they refused and were all imprisoned.

The first action in the British plan to expel the French from North America took place in Remsheg, a small Acadian village found at the mouth of the Remsheg River in Nova Scotia.

Be sure to visit the current exhibit at the Toronto Sporting Past in the gallery located on the main floor of the Toronto Reference Library. Catch the exhibit before it closes on September 5! And you can also check out the virtual exhibit to learn more.

The 1890s in Europe and America saw a new design in bicycles with the invention in the 1880s, - the “safety” bicycle. It features two wheels of equal size, and replaced the famous penny-farthing bicycle.

And is brought about a change in women's clothing. Split skirts and bloomers started to appear, and these new garments and undergarments provided freedom of use from the restrictions of the traditional clothing of the time.

Thursday, August 20, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

Canada remember the Dieppe Raid

Seventy-three years ago, on August 19, 1942, one of the most tragic days for Canada during the Second World War and in all of Canadian military history took place on the beaches of Dieppe, France.

The numbers are astounding! Nearly 5,000 of the 6,100 Allied troops who fought in the Dieppe Raid were Canadian. The sacrifices made were tremendous as only 2,210 returned to England, and many of them were terribly wounded. Casualties totaled 3,367, including 916 men who lost their lives and almost 1,950 who were taken as prisoners of war and forced to endure harsh treatment.

On Tuesday, July 28th, 2015, residents and visitors of Oakville took photos for Oakville Public Library's inaugural A Day in the Life of Oakville project. The library wanted to capture a moment in Oakville's history to preserve for future generations and they received over 100 submissions.

All the photos have been assembled in a digital gallery here, which will remain online indefinitely. They would like to thank everyone who took the time to take a photo of their day for this digital heritage project.

If you didn't get a chance to participate this year, the library plans on making this an annual event.

Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

Worldwide Indexing Event has ended

FamilySearch has said that a total of 82,039 volunteers helped to “Fuel the Find” during FamilySearch’s Worldwide Indexing Event, held August 7-14, 2015.

Though short of the goal of 100,000 participants, the effort produced a number of remarkable achievements, among them an 89% increase in non-English language indexing activity, Volunteers produced more than 12.2 million indexed (transcribed) and 2.3 million arbitrated (reviewed) records during the weekly event. As with all records indexed by FamilySearch indexing volunteers, those indexed during the global event will be made freely searchable at FamilySearch.

For the Worldwide Indexing Event, FamilySearch sought volunteers who could decipher records recorded in a variety of languages, with a focus on French, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. Volunteers from all over the world exceeded expectations by processing over 2,183,212 non-English records including 1,380,684 in Spanish, 147,568 in Portuguese, 226,734 in French, and116,835 in Italian.

FamilySearch heartily thanks all of the volunteers for their contributions and dedication and encourages anyone interested in participating to join the ongoing indexing initiative at www.FamilySearch.org/indexing

Digitization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) update

And digitization of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) service files is underway and a substantial number of digitized files have been added to their website as part of the Government of Canada First World War commemoration activities at the Library and Archives Canada.

They will add new files every two weeks, as the CEF digitization initiative is a priority for them. LAC will ensure that Canadians have access to the files throughout the digitization process, scheduled to be completed by the end of 2018.

As of today, 181,338 of 640,000 files are available in the database. Latest box digitized box: #2490, name: Devos.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Here are some news items which have come across my desk this morning -

New Park Officially Opens

The Friends of Upper Fort Garry, the group which supports the Upper Fort Garry, the headquarters of the Hudson Bay Company from the 1830s to the 1880s, opened a park last week at the provincial heritage site.

Upper Fort Garry was the administrative and economic centre for Rupert's Land and was the location of the Louis Riel provisional government that eventually led to the admission of Manitoba as a province to the Dominion of Canada in 1870. The fort was the cultural, social, judicial and economic centre of the northwest for more than 35 years.

The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society (SGS) is sponsoring a two day Beginner Workshop on September 12 and 19, 2015.

The first day will focus on Getting Started and the focus of the second day will be Finding Sources.

Certified Instructors: Chris Krismer and Celeste Rider

It will be held at SGS Library at 110 – 1514 11th Avenue, Regina, from 10:00 am to 4:00 pm each day.

The cost will be $40 per person, and you can call 306.780.9207 to register.

Register early as space is limited. Pre-registration and payment required by September 4, 2015.

The Saskatoon Branch will be hosting a workshop with Pat Ryan on September 25 & 26, 2015.

It’s being held at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints at 1429 – 10th Street East in Saskatoon.

The topics for the workshop include: Who’s Your Momma – paying attention to details, beginner and advanced; The Hidden Records of Library and Archives Canada; and The Importance of Finding and Using Maps in Your Genealogical Research

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Booklet #1 - The War of 1812: Canada and the United States

The booklet, “The War of 1812: Canada and the United States”, gives a synopsis of the causes of the War, and details the battles that took place (who, where, and when), and which included British forces, Blacks, and Aboriginal warriors who fought on both sides of the conflict.

Booklet #2 – Migration: Canada and the United States

These headings offer good examples of those who came to Canada, or of Canadians who left for the U.S, and why. The booklet gives a synopsis of what records to look for, the books written on the subject, where to find online resources, and a bonus list of some famous Canadians who migrated to the U.S.